Northern Illinois is first MAC team to earn BCS bid

Dec. 2, 2012
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A sign held up by Northern Illinois linebacker Bobby Winkel (27) after the Huskies' 44-27 double overtime win in the 2012 MAC Championship says it all: Northern Illinois and the MAC are in the BCS for the first time. / Andrew Weber, US Presswire

by Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports

by Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports

Northern Illinois is headed to the Orange Bowl to face Florida State on Jan. 2, a matchup that will leave Boise State and Oklahoma out of the BCS picture.

The Huskies' invitation means that for the first time since 2010, when TCU beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, the BCS will feature a team from a non-automatically qualifying league.

Northern Illinois capped the most successful season in school history Friday when it beat Kent State 44-37 in double overtime to clinch the program's second Mid-American Conference championship in a row under coach Dave Doeren. (Less than 24 hours later, Doeren was hired as Tom O'Brien's replacement at North Carolina State.)

Sunday, Northern Illinois earned its first bid to a BCS game, a selection that gave the MAC its first BCS berth in the 14-year history of the system.

Northern Illinois knew heading into the MAC title game that it needed to get to No. 16 in the BCS standings to earn an at-large bid. According to the BCS selection procedures, a team such as Northern Illinois could land a BCS bowl berth in one of two ways: one, by finishing in the top 12 of the final BCS standings, or two, by finishing in the top 16 of the final standings and finishing ahead of the champion of an automatically qualifying league.

No. 15 Northern Illinois finished ahead of both No. 21 Louisville, which won the Big East, and Wisconsin, which won the Big Ten but was not among the top 25 in the final BCS standings.

The Huskies are 21-1 since October 2, 2011, the best mark in FBS. They are led by junior quarterback Jordan Lynch, the nation's leader in rushing (1,771 yards) and total yards (4,733).

Northern Illinois entered Friday's game No. 21 in the penultimate BCS standings; No. 16 UCLA, No. 17 Kent State and No. 18 Texas lost, and the Huskies' win against the Golden Flashes was considered to be strong enough to bump them ahead of No. 20 Boise State and No. 19 Michigan.

In addition, the Huskies received a large boost from Nebraska's 70-31 loss in the Big Ten championship game. Northern Illinois had hoped the Cornhuskers' post-Wisconsin tumble from No. 12 in the BCS would be large enough to move the Huskies into the top 16 in the final standings. It was, moving the Huskies up five spots to No. 15 by 0.0012 ahead of No. 16 Nebraska.

Boise State went 10-2, losing to Michigan State and San Diego State and earned its seventh consecutive 10-win season under coach Chris Petersen. Northern Illinois went 12-1, setting a school record for wins in a season. With their rèsumès complete, all the Broncos and Huskies could do was wait for the BCS to make their postseason travel plans official.

Boise State ended up No. 19 in the BCS standings and will instead head to the Las Vegas Bowl as the top seed in the Mountain West. Boise State also played in the Las Vegas Bowl in 2011 and 2010.

The Broncos were almost certainly eliminated from the at-large discussion before Saturday, said ESPN BCS analyst Brad Edwards, and were a long shot to grab an at-large bid heading into the season's final weekend.

"Boise State seemed to be pretty much maxed out in the polls" on Nov. 25, Edwards said. Barring an almost unforeseeable development Saturday, the Broncos had no hope of moving ahead of several teams and reaching the top 16.

Oklahoma's case for the BCS was simple. The Sooners finished 10-2, 8-1 in the Big 12, and lost only to BCS qualifiers Notre Dame and Kansas State. OU finished ahead of Northern Illinois in the BCS standings but were kept out of the Sugar Bowl in large part because the Big East and Big Ten underachieved. If Nebraska had beaten Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game rather than lose by 39 points, the Cornhuskers would have finished in the top 16 of the BCS, Oklahoma would have gone to the Sugar Bowl and Northern Illinois would have remained out of the BCS picture.

Had Oklahoma qualified, it would have tied Ohio State for the most BCS bowl appearances with nine.

With Northern Illinois' qualification, only two FBS leagues - Conference USA and the Sun Belt - have not had a representative in a BCS game.